Proud to be Ghanaian

China!

Ni hao! I returned from China a week ago and it was so much fun. Unfortunately, I have had so much to do at work that I haven’t been able to blog about the People’s Republic of China. Four words; Beautiful country, Nice people!

I was in China for a 2-week Chinese Government Seminar for Officials from Developing Countries on Development Zone Policies. It was was exciting and presented a great opportunity to interact with some Chinese (Officials & non-officials) and other nationals, as well as visit some really cool parks, markets and other monuments.

I don’t even know how to structure this post but I will try to fit it all in one and make it less boring.

New Friends 新的朋友

One of the best parts of the trip was making new friends. By far, the Egyptians were my favourite; Ahmed, Nihal, Shiima, Nehal, Mohammed and Walaa. [I know they are reading; You guys rock!]. There were other cool people from Ethiopia, Vietnam and Zambia. At least if I find myself in their countries, I know I have a friend there.

We had great hosts we can call friends now. Steven, Celia and the other staff at AIBO were just lovely. Steven is always looking out for a brother :D At this point, I must say in my honest opinion, Chinese hospitality tops Ghanaian hospitality.

Beijing 北京

Beijing was fantastic! The best part was with the tours; visiting The Forbidden City, Behai Park, Silk Market, Yashow Market and of course climbing the Great Wall of China! ‘He who doesn’t reach the Great Wall is not a true man’ - Mao Zedong.

The world knows I love gadgets and I visited Zhongguancun on 3 occasions with Ahmed. Though we couldn’t get all we wanted, we got some pretty good bargains. The Apple Store in Sanlitun Village was the first Apple Store the fictional Apple Inc Executive has visited. It was packed with people. One couldn’t even move but for me, I was in a shrine.

iPhone 4 & iPhone 3GS

These are by far the most popular smartphones in China. Everybody has an iPhone 4 or 3GS. I saw a bunch of people making purchases at the Apple Store and I think every 5 people with smartphones I met, 4 had the iPhone 4 & 3GS. Androids are quite popular too. I saw only 2 Blackberrys in China. [Yes, I was counting]

Dalian 大连

As part of the seminar, we visited Dalian to see first-hand and interact with stakeholders in the Dalian Development Area. Dalian has some similarities with African countries having been occupied by the Russians and Japanese from 1898 to 1955 but that will be discussed in a different post. 

I love Dalian. I left my heart there. It is indeed a lovely city with a lot of squares and parks. My group was skeptical about visiting Dalian. We wanted to visit Shanghai or Shenzen but Dalian proved us wrong. I can’t even begin to talk about the people. From the tour guide Hebe to everyone we say in the city including the Russians (a lot of Russians live in Dalian) were so friendly. The hotel staff at the Guo Mao Ja Ri Hotel were really nice and I made a personal friend called Xiao Han Song.

In Dalian, I learn’t something about Korea DPR. The hotel had some North Korean girls who performed some lovely songs for us. Interestingly, they double as waitresses at the hotel. Dalian isn’t far from Korea DPR, so children of officials are often sent there to work. They earn CN¥1,200 ($185) of which their government takes ¥1,000 ($30), which I learn’t is a lot of money in their countries. I also learn’t in Korea DPR, footballers earn as little as CN¥36.

It was also fun playing Cuju (Ancient Chinese Football) with complete strangers. The only bad thing was I tore my dope khaki trousers :(

Dalian nights were also cool; walking through the city and shopping. A lot of locals took a lot of pictures with me that my Egyptian friends joked about my picture being in the tabloids the next day. I can go on and on about Dalian. Maybe I will do a full post on Dalian later. 

Mao Zedong & Deng Xiaoping
They are the two most revered men in China. You will hear phrases like ‘Chairman Mao, our great leader’ and ‘Deng Xiaoping, the architect of reform and open-up policy’ everywhere you go. I revere them too. I knew very little about Deng Xiaoping but visiting China and seeing how his policy and directives have driven the country to its current state, I can’t help but admire him some more. Since I returned home, I have been reading a lot about Deng Xiaoping and his works and occasionally post some of his quotes on twitter. Deng is my man!

The Communist Party of China

Don’t believe everything you read and hear in the media. The Chinese people love the Communist Party of China (CPC). Everybody I spoke to or sought his/her opinion told me how they admire the CPC. One man I interacted with in Dalian said he didn’t see the current political system changing in the next 50 years and I agree with him. The only way I see the CPC losing its legitimacy and as echoed by President Hu Jintao when addressing the CPC Central Committee on the occassion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CPC is the warning that ‘corruption could cost them the support and trust of the people’.

Let’s be fair. The CPC and its policies have worked for China. In a lot of my discussions with a friend from Zambia, Steven, whom I usually shared a seat on the bus with, we questioned whether the system wasn’t the best for our countries.

Dislikes and Half-Likes

China wasn’t perfect. There were a couple of things I didn’t like. Obviously, the Great Firewall of China is on top of that list. I wasn’t happy I couldn’t tweet and post updates from facebook. Not entirely though. A friend gave me a software (Freegate) to bypass the Great Firewall of China which I in turn distributed to everyone else [yeah, I am bad like that]. Ocassionally, it couldn’t bypass the firewall but it was better than nothing.

I was able to use Foursquare and Tumblr though, but I think the social media detox was good for me though. A lot of people argue how the Chinese government is giving her citizens half the internet. The good thing is that it has led to the growth of local companies; Baidu (Chinese Google), Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter), QQ (Chinese Yahoo! Messenger) - I use that :) There is a Chinese version of everything in China. There is even a Chinese ‘Proud to be Ghanaian’ :)

Like Ghana, A lot of people spit indiscriminately in public and a lot of people cough without covering their mouths. I think these are reasons airborne diseases spread like wildfire.

It was a wonderful trip and I really did enjoy China and I look forward to visiting soon.

I Love China!!!

Have You Registered Your SIM Card?

With 5 days to go, I ask, have you registered your SIM card yet? Don’t forget per the National Communication Authority’s directive, all SIM cards which have not been registered by close of day, June 30 2011 will be deactivated. This means that from July 1st 2011, only SIM cards that have been registered will be able to make and receive calls. This applies to data sim cards too.

The exercise, which begun on July 1st 2010 according to the National Communication Authority is  ’to enhance the personal safety of subscribers; eliminate fraud and crime made possible by the use of mobile phones and to give consumers permanent ownership of their mobile numbers’. 

If you are not sure if your SIM card has been registered or the registration is one of the 30% invalid registrations, just send an SMS with your SIM card’s (phone) number to 400 (for free) on all networks and you will receive confirmation of your registration. 

It is not difficult finding a registration point in your neighbourhood. Just present either your Driving License, National Passport, National Health Insurance Card, Voter’s ID Card or National Identification Card and your SIM card to be registered.

Go on, register your SIM card and stay connected!

Technology & Social Media: Lessons From The Nigerian Elections

It’s a wrap and as expected Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan has been elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the next 4 years. I closely followed the Nigerian Polls way before it begun. Nigeria was on everybody’s radar when Umar Yar’Adua, the former president was elected in 2007 after his demise last year.

My interest in the Nigerian Elections was in the use of the internet, technology and social media and I looked it from its use by the Independent National Electoral Commission, Political Parties/Candidates, the People (Voters) and the media. In all, I was trying to draw lessons as Ghana prepares to go to the polls in December 2012.

Despite the initial hitches, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did quite a good job. I was impressed by how Nigeria deployed the biometric voter registration system. This is something we have been talking about in Ghana for some time now and I really hope we can get a biometric voters’ register for the 2012 elections. I will eliminate/reduce electoral fraud and vote rigging. The process according to the Electoral Commission will cost $80 million. I don’t think that is too much to spend as we want our polls to be credible and avoid situations like the Ivorian one. INEC’s website displays boldly links to their Facebook and Twitter pages, Blackberry PIN, email address, SMS and telephone numbers for results and updates. I am quite certain the Electoral Commission of Ghana’s website will be update towards 2012 with social media integration. They better hire the right people to manage their Social Media office.

The candidates and political parties used social media to woo young voters. In 2010, CNN published an article on its website titled Goodluck Jonathan: The Facebook Preseident in 2010. Back then Mr. Jonathan had 246,000 friends. Goodluck Jonathan went on to announce his candidature for the presidency on Facebook. Today, he has 532,000 friends and counting. Social Media was widely used in the campaign trail and I expect that to catch up with Ghanaian aspirants for both the Presidency and Parliament. Ghanaian politicians haven’t showed much interest in Social Media. John Evans Atta Mills has 15,500 fans and counting on his unofficial Facebook page. Opposition leader, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has 4,920 friends on a page I believe is his personal profile. I expect these pages to swell up with friends and fans towards #election2012. Can someone confirm Nana Addo Dankwa’s twitter page? Can we get more Ghanaian politicians using Social Media, please?

My primary source of news for the past three years has been Twitter and my RSS feed. I turned to Twitter for updates on the elections via the hashtag #nigeriadecides and users on my private NigerianVotes list (@eggheader, @africanelection, @NigeriaNewsdesk and @bubusn). In 2008, I remember using Twitter to push out updates to Ghanaians in the diaspora and people who were interested in happenings in Ghana. I will single out @ghanaelections as the best source of 2008 elections update on Twitter. The account now tweets post-election issues. I recommend you follow @ghanaelections now! With the number of Ghanaians on Twitter growing, the world should expect an explosion of tweets from Ghanaians in December 2012.

I don’t remember any media house in Ghana using Twitter during the 2008 elections. I am not sure about Facebook either but as we gear towards the 2012 elections, taking examples from the USA’s 2008 elections, Nigeria’s 2011 elections and recent Social Media-led revolutions, I bet our media houses will be doing a lot of reporting via twitter and facebook. I tip @Joy997FM and @peacefmonline to lead the way. Between the two, they have some 5,000 followers on twitter. I expect them to beef up their social media desks in the next 12 months in anticipation of the 2012 polls.

Let us continue to pick lessons from the Nigerian polls and debate how the Ghana online community can contribute and make ours free, fair, transparent and better.

God bless our homeland Ghana!!!

How The iPad Is Changing My Reading Habits

Growing up, I used to read a lot. My favourite author was Enid Blyton and not a week passed without reading an Enid Blyton book. I read a lot of comics too; The Adventures of Tintin and The Adventures of Asterix & Obelix. Somewhere along the line between Junior High and Senior High, I completely lost it.

I don’t know why I developed a dislike and a lazy attitude towards reading. I was brought up as a reader. My mom made sure I registered at the Sunyani Regional Library and borrowed a book every week. At the same time, I was bringing a book from the the school’s library. I remember my mom would drop me and my kid brother at the library every day of our school vacations. We thought it was cruel and unfair for her to drop us off at the library at 09:00 and pick us up at 16:00. All we wanted to do was stay home, play with our Sega 2 console and sleep.

Thanks to the iPad, my reading habits are changing. I am rediscovering the old me. I always said I would rediscover the habit of reading with the iPad and gladly, I am. I could touch on other habits and how beneficial the iPad had been but I think ultimately, what I am grateful for is it helping change my reading habits.

The iBooks app and the iBookstore provides a wide variety of books to choose from. No more waiting for the Silverbird Lifestyle Store to get a book from the New York Times Bestseller List. I can make purchases directly on my iPad. I can also add epub and pdf files, making it easy to read reports and other documents on the go.

It is great to read on the iPad. I enjoy reading on the trotro, the bus stop and before those boring meetings begin. I can bookmark pages, highlight texts, add notes, change the font size and type, change the background colour, listen to music whilst I read, look up meaning of words with the in-built dictionary as well as search in Google or Wikipedia.

Currently, I have 650 books and pdfs on the my iPad. Now, I may never be able to read all 650 but it’s cool keeping a library. I have read a couple of them and I am currently reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference.

The iPad beats the Kindle hands down in reading. The added advantage is the ability to install the Kindle app and buy books from the Kindle Store. I prefer iBooks and the iBookstore over Kindle though.

If you got a few cedis to spend, spend it on an iPad and some books. Most importantly, it is green!

It’s Been A Year Already?

It is exactly a year since I started working in the Public Service. I bet none of my colleagues remember. Well, Administration & Human Resource doesn’t either so it’s no big deal. 

It has been one short year. It has come faster than I expected. It has been a good learning experience. I have one of the best bosses in the Ghana’s public service and she is teaching me fast and giving me opportunities to excel. I have had the opportunity of sitting in national reviews, being on committees and making small changes in my organisation.

Anyway, it has been challenging working in the public service. One phrase you hear everyday is ‘no money’. There is never enough funds to undertake projects and activities. It is either Government of Ghana hasn’t release our budgetary allocation or our request to organistion x is yet to be approved. It is so frustrating. As I write, to the best of my knowledge, my organisation has not received as little as a pesewa from the Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning. I enquired from a friend at the Ministry and she said releases are done when all agencies under a sector ministry submit their work plan. I am still trying to process that. We submitted ours before December 31st 2010, so just give us what is due us.

There are a lot of ‘saboteurs’ in  the Public Service. These saboteurs are lazy and have little or no desire to be better people for themselves and for the nation. They believe promotions and opportunities should be based on political affiliation and the number of years one has served in the service and not based on merit.

I always say before people are employed in the public sector, they should be given a tour of Ghana. They will then realise the consequences of their actions and inactions.

That said, there are also a lot of hardworking and well-meaning Ghanaians in the Public Service. They put the Republic first and in extra work. They love their work! I know a couple of them and they truly deserve all the good things that come their way.

I am here for a reason and like I have done this past year, I will continue to put in my very best. We do this for man and nation.

God bless our homeland Ghana!

April - The Month for Change

‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ - Mahatma Ghandi

Welcome to April!

It is the month for change for me. I am fired up by my desire to change the way I do and treat certain aspects/things in my life and the things around me. On top of that, my organisation just participated in the Public Sector Reform Secretariat’s Culture Change programme. A lot of my colleagues are fired up too and for the first time, some of them pledged to take responsibility and make changes in their departments.

‘Too known’ as I am, I pledged to take up the organisation’s newsletter, revive it and make it interesting. I see it as a big challenge and I know a lot of my colleague will be looking up to me to effect that change. I strongly believe that my success will give others the urge to change things in the organisation.

We can all effect change in our organisations, schools and communities. Like Ghandi said, ‘let’s be the change we want to see’. Ghana needs a new crop of people; people who are ready to change the way things are done; people who are willing and ready to support change.

We live in a society where the ‘culture of fear’ has become a part of our national fabric. We would rather see things go wrong than to speak up and be branded as conceited or victimised by our superiors. We want to see a new Ghana where the culture of fear will be overcome just like we overcame the culture of silence. 

Anyway, there are other projects I will be working on this month and I look forward to blogging about them.

Happy Change Month!

The Day After…

I will cut the chase. I wasn’t impressed with the Black Stars performance yesterday! I was expecting a win. I was so sure of a win. I think we could have far better. I told my colleagues I didn’t see the point of all the jubilation. It was only a draw… against a B team. 

It is okay we walked away with a draw. Asamoah Gyan was again the hero for Ghana and I heard I couple of people say they have forgiven him for his penalty miss at the World Cup.

Asamoah ‘Baby Jet’ Gyan aka Wenchi-1-Goal being carried as a bride hero by Derek Boateng.

I went around tumblr and twitter and I game across some really nice pictures I want to share.

Like former Black Stars captain described it, it was disrespectful for Capello to field a B team against Ghana

It looks like the Ghanaian Fans will never forgive Uruguayan Striker, Luis Suarez. 

… and when the goal came, they stadium went gay. It was ecstatic!

God bless our homeland Ghana!

England v. Ghana

Today is a historic day for Ghanaian football. Today, the Black Stars play the Three Lions for the first time. This is a game Ghanaians and a lot of football enthusiasts have been anticipating for long time. We have always wanted to play England. The reasons are quite simple; Ghana has matured in football and it’s about time we play England and other ‘big’ teams and show the world what we are made of. The other reason is beating the former colonialists at their own game. The closest Ghana has come to playing England was in 2006 when a friendly was arranged before the world cup in Germany but later canceled. The Wembley is going to come alive tonight. With tickets sold out you can expect fireworks and the best from the Black Stars.

It is sad however that England’s big names like Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole have been sent home by Fabio Capello. Although the argument might seem valid, I think it is disrespectful. I don’t think England would have sent these players home if they were playing Argentina or even the USA. I was infuriated when I heard the news. I said to myself; let’s field a ‘B’ team but we are the Black Stars, we play to win. 

I can’t put all the blame on England though. The Ghanaian players and fans should take their fair share of it. Listening to Black Stars skipper and Sunderland defender John Mensah on the BBC on Saturday, there is the feeling that Ghana must win the game at all cost, more like the world cup finals. As we say in Ghana, ‘We mean the game’.

Ghana will also be without assistant captain and Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien, who is taking a break from the national team and AC Milan forward, Kevin-Prince Boateng, who pulled out of the team citing an ankle injury.

After Ghana’s strong showing in the 2012 African Cup of Nations Qualifier in Brazzaville, Congo on Sunday and Coach Goran Stevanovic’s great start with the national team, I have no doubt Ghana will deliver the goals. Did you know the Ghana Football Association (GFA) flew the CEOs and Administrators of the Glo Premier League Clubs to England to watch the game? Some say that shows how much it means to us. Others say that’s Kofi Nyantakyi’s way of securing his re-election as GFA President. I can’t be bothered.

It is also good to know that former Black Stars captain, Stephen Appiah has been invited by the GFA as special guest. In the words of Kofi Nyantakyi, “Appiah has played a major role in what the Black Stars has become today and we think for his work for mother Ghana he must be part of this historic team.” Appiah in his response said “I was so moved by this big gesture from the GFA that I felt like crying. We only came to serve the people our country and I am touched that the people appreciate the service we gave them.” Let say befitting goodbye to Appiah today.

Let’s look at the players available for selection today;

Goalkeepers: Richard Kingson (Blackpool, England), Sammy Adjei (Hearts of Oak, Ghana) Ernest Sowah (Berekum Chelsea, Ghana)

Defenders: John Paintsil (Fulham, England) Samuel Inkoom (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) Daniel Opare (Standard Liege, Belgium) David Addy (Academica Coimbra, Portugal) Jonathan Mensah (Granada, Spain) Isaac Vorsah (Hoffenheim, Germany) John Mensah (Sunderland, England) Lee Addy (Red Star Belgrade, Serbia)

Midfielders: Anthony Annan (Schalke 04, Germany), Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu (Udinese, Italy), Bernard Kumordzi (Panionios, Greece) Kwadwo Asamoah (Udinese, Italy) Sulley Muntari (Sunderland, England) Derek Boateng (Getafe, Spain) Andre Ayew (Marseille, France) 

Attackers: Asamoah Gyan (Sunderland, England) Prince Tagoe (Partizan Belgrade, Serbia) Dominic Adiyiah (Partizan Belgrade, Serbia) Nathaniel Asamoah (Asante Kotoko, Ghana) Emmanuel Clottey (Berekum Chelsea, Ghana)

Special Guest: Stephen Appiah (Casena, Italy)

Kickoff is 19:00 GMT. If you are in Africa, you can catch the game on Supersport and on the BBC Africa Service. You can also catch the match online at www.ghanalive.tv. I will leave work early so as not to be stuck in traffic :)

Prediction? England 0-2 Ghana!

Let’s Go Black Stars!

Visionary Vistas - Reflections on a Brighter Future for Ghana

I just finished reading Baafo Ahenkora’s book; Visionary Vista - Reflections on a Brighter Future for Ghana and I am really impressed and inspired and I would like to recommend it to all readers of my blog. The author, the writer of GhanaBiased does a good job on sharing his reflection on things that need to be done for a brighter future for the motherland.

At certain points, it was as if I was reading instructions from the founding fathers of the country.

The release of the book is timely; on the 54th Independence anniversary, in the wake of ‘people revolutions’ and increasing use of social media. Ahenkora talks on various subjects in his book; education, revenue generation, economy, corruption, infrastructure, governance, culture and africa.

I share the authors views in almost all areas discussed. One chapter that really touched me was his reflections on our education system, the politicisation and failed attempts at reforms. It is sad to see how our education system is down the drain and very little is being done.

I would have loved that Baafo Ahenkora had drawn a conclusion. A chapter 9 with a conclusion summarising his reflections would have been ideal. This is a really good book available for free download. The layout is good with relevant references. Grab a copy here and the author would appreciate some feedback.